Living Seasonally: Advice from a Lifelong Ranger

We sit down with Chuck Cameron, a lifelong Glacier Ranger, to learn about his incredible and unusual career.
Headwaters is created by Daniel Lombardi, Michael Faist, Gaby Eseverri, and Peri Sasnett.
Glacier Conservancy: glacier.org/he... Frank Waln music: / frankwaln Stella Nall art: / stella.nall
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TRANSCRIPT:
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Lacy Kowalski: Headwaters is supported by the Glacier National Park Conservancy.
Michael Faist: Have you ever met somebody for the first time, introduced yourself and had a nice conversation only to walk away and immediately forget their name? I have. It feels like one of the great shared human experiences to have that guilty conversation with yourself. Was it John? Jim? Shoot. Which makes it all the more surprising when you meet someone who seems to be immune to that phenomenon. Someone like Chuck Cameron.
Chuck Cameron: My name is Chuck Cameron. [squirrel chirping loudly] There's a squirrel.
Gaby Eseverri: [laughing] There's a little squirrel.
Michael: [in the field] All right. One more time without the squirrel [laughing].
Chuck: Yeah, without the squirrel. [clearing throat] My name is Chuck Cameron, and I'm a wilderness ranger here in Glacier.
Michael: Chuck has been a ranger in Glacier longer than I've been alive, and he's a bit of a local legend. Even so, after meeting me once for 30 seconds at a party during my first season here, he remembered my name months later, shook my hand and was happy to see me. Which felt nice because I'd heard Chuck's name a lot. He's the sort of person that everyone you meet knows and loves, and the incredible stories you hear about them don't seem to line up with the calm and mild-mannered person you've met. But while Chuck has led a long and storied career here in Glacier, the most surprising part of that career is that the park terminates him, every fall. Well, kind of. A common question we get from visitors is what does it take to be a park ranger? And while there is no one answer to that question, as there's no one type of park ranger, a good answer is you've got to be willing to move every six months. Ninety five percent of Glaciers visitors come between May and October. So it makes sense that the park doesn't really need most of its staff in the wintertime. So to find a career in the NPS, a lot of people move across the country every six months, bouncing between summer and winter jobs. My friend just told me last week he's moved 48 times. And for most, the ultimate goal is to land one of the few competitive permanent positions in the Park Service. I've always seen that as the path to an NPS career. But it wasn't Chuck's.
Michael: [in the field] And how long have you worked here in Glacier?
Chuck: This is my 42nd season.
Gaby: 42nd?
Chuck: Yeah.
Gaby: Woah! That's a lot of seasons. I'm on-I'm on season two [laughing].
Chuck: You-You only have 40 to go, and we'll be the same [Chuck, Michael and Gaby laughing].
Michael: Chuck's been a seasonal his whole career. One of the few people I've met in Glacier who can say that. [theme music fades in] I wanted to sit down with him because I think his unusual path says a lot about the unusual job that is working for the National Park Service. Equal parts, delightful and stressful, noble, yet often bizarre. But I also think that few people could have had the career that Chuck has. And I want to know how he did it. [theme music plays, with the strumming of a string instrument, a flute, and drumbeats].
Michael: You're listening to Headwaters, a show about how Glacier National Park connects with everything else. I'm Michael. [music fades] And today I invited lifelong Glacier Ranger Chuck Cameron over for dinner.
Michael: [in the field] [laughter] Yeah, let's go to the porch.
Michael: Chuck's a laid back guy, very tall, the warm smile, and he's easy to get along with. You can tell just by looking at him. He showed up to dinner wearing an aloha shirt cooler in hand,.
Michael: [in the field] [someone cracks open a canned beverage] Serve yourself, we've got pulled pork and coleslaw sandwiches.
Michael: The plan my fellow producer, Gaby, and I came up with was to sit around the campfire with Chuck and share stories. But unfortunately, a much larger fire had just started a-wildfire seven miles away, so we were under a strict burn ban. No campfires. So instead, I made pulled pork sandwiches and we settled down on a porch with a view.
Chuck: Thank you. That was delicious.
Michael: [in the field] You're Wilderness Ranger now. What was the first job you had here in the park?
Chuck: I worked on the trail crew as a Laborer in Many Glacier in 1982.
Michael: Was that the first time you ever came to the park?
Chuck: The first time I'd ever been to Montana.
Michael: Woah.
Gaby: Really? From where?...